The present invention is directed to a pipe organ valve and more specifically to the construction of the valve member per se adapted to close the wind chest aperture leading to a pipe of the organ.
For many years the typical solenoid operated chest valve for a pipe organ was provided with a valve member of soft resilient material in order to minimize the noise upon closing of the valve. The valve was usually attached to a valve stem which acted as the armature of the solenoid and a closing spring generally surrounded the valve stem for normally biasing the valve member into closing engagement with the wind chest about the circumference of the aperture leading to a pipe. The spring had to be of sufficient strength so as cause a fast return of the valve but not so strong as to resist the attraction of the solenoid when it was necessary to open the valve to allow the pipe to speak.
The combined mass of the valve and stem, the spring force, the pressure differential between the interior of the chest and the atmosphere and the resiliency of the material used in the valve all combined to plague the valve with an unacceptable tendency to bounce during a closing operation. This was even more objectionable on fast speaking pipes since a very audible sound was produced with the air escaping into the pipe as the valve member bounced.
In Applicant's prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,522, granted July 6, 1976, a solenoid operated chest valve for a pipe organ was disclosed wherein the valve member was constructed so as to minimize the objectionable flow of air into a pipe during bounce to substantially eliminate the objectionable sound previously caused by air escaping into the pipe from the air chest during the bounce of the valve member. The valve member was provided with a flat planar surface adapted to engage the interior of the wind chest about the circumference of an aperture leading to a pipe and was further provided with a circular projection on this surface having minimal circumferential clearance within the aperture so as to allow the projection to move freely within the aperture while substantially filling the aperture during a typical bounce of the main valve member from its seat during a closing operation. While this construction reduced the amount of air flowing during bounce it did not completely eliminate the flow of air and consequently the problem still existed to a lesser degree.
In Applicant's copending application, U.S. Ser. No. 759,803, filed July 29, 1985, entitled "Electric Valve for Pipe Organs", a new and improved valve member construction was disclosed which eliminated the adverse effects of bounce while facilitating the opening of the valve by means of relatively small force. The valve member was comprised of a support member secured to the armature of the solenoid, felt means secured to the support member and a soft pliable sheet of material secured to one of the support members and felt members adjacent the periphery thereof with sufficient slack to allow separation of the soft pliable member from the felt member whereby the soft pliable member could be maintained in engagement with the valve seat during bouncing movement of the armature.